Re: Dorrigo

[Eddie.Oliver@efs.mq.edu.au (Eddie Oliver)]

"Gregory D. Young" <greggy@acay.com.au> wrote:

>    IThe restoration of the line is totally contingent upon the support of
>the members. It will be fettled and rehabilitated again once the settlement
>is in place. It just taes work and people committed to do it. We have a
>large broad supportive base of members who will be and are prepared to
>support it. Really te only monetary constraints is/are having enough money
>to buy sleepers and ensuring materials are in place when needed.

I love to see positive thinking, but one often has to ask where the line is
to be drawn between positive thinking and wild dreaming.

Someone mentioned that there are track machines which can do much of
the work.  Track machines (like tampers, for instance) are designed to maintain
track which is already in passable condition, and/or to assist in laying new track.
They are not designed to turn a forest into a railway.

Unfortunately that is what much of the Dorrigo line currently is - a forest with relics
of an old railway somewhere underneath. To "restore" that old railway requires
not only uncovering the old railway, but also restoring (or constructing afresh) all
the infra-infrastructure like the drainage, the track base etc. - before you even
get to the sleepers and the rails.

I claim no expertise in costing infrastructure works, nor do I want to start an exchange
of wild guesses. However even with far more voluntary labour than I think you
would ever get for a sustained period, I think we are talking tens of millions of
dollars.

Of course it might be more feasible to restore some shorter length. Dorrigo down to
Megan is much more open-country than are the sections closer to the coast, and
is presumably much less covered with the forest. Unfortunately it is some of the
most forested bits - especially around Timber Top - that are the most worthwhile
bits.

Eddie Oliver